“It doesn’t matter what it costs, it’s gotta be done.”
I have to circle back to a comment made by Renfrew councillor Andrew Dick in the most recent council meeting of October 22, 2024. It concerned the lighting available at Renfrew’s Ma-Te-Way ballfields.
The councillor was reflecting a certain frustration with the lighting situation at Ma-Te-Way, particularly in the face of a Parks and Recreation report that indicated that all underground electrical infrastructure outside at Ma-Te-Way was in a condition of complete failure and degradation. So much so that contractors have advised that the lights dependant upon the proper functioning of that infrastructure not be turned on until the failed aspects of it be replaced.
Council voted to proceed with an engineering study by engineering consultants JP2G that would culminate in recommendations as to how to proceed. The only problem with that, and of particular concern to Councillor Dick, was the fact that the engineering review wouldn’t be completed until well after the 2025 baseball season had concluded. In other words, no lights in 2025.
Various arguments were made as to the nature of parks and recreation services, and of how they are often money-losing propositions, but accepted as such, in keeping with some philosophical thought as to how parks and rec ‘always” operates at a deficit. The argument suggests that’s just the cost of doing the business of providing your citizens with important services that enhance their quality of life.
First, there is no government service that should be considered a default-deficit proposition on its face. All services have impacts that can influence a local economy, and that’s good, but that doesn’t mean the municipality has to go into red ink on these items just because “that’s the way it’s done.” On its face, it’s not the primary task of local government to ensure the balance sheets of local businesses are robust and in black ink. Sure it’s important, but that’s not the only focus at play here.
That attitude the “I don’t care what it costs” attitude, may be one of the major features brought to light in the Ma-Te-Way fiasco, that things were done in a way consistent with that philosophy, that things were done the way they’d always been done, and that was the expectation. The old, patently false, argument of “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” is patently absurd, especially when the way “we’ve” always done it turns out to be wrong. And maybe even inappropriate. Maybe even illegal.
Councillor Dick is a ballplayer. He talks about the economic impact his team alone has had on the community when they’re participating in local tournaments. He’s not wrong. But those economic benefits, while legitimate, are benefits that primarily assist private business owners and their balance sheets, not the balance sheet of the Town of Renfrew. And when you have a balance sheet that looks like the one owned by the Town of Renfrew, that becomes an important consideration. Yes, the economic spin-offs are good for local business. And yes, thriving local businesses form part of the heart of any growing community. No argument from me there.
But it’s taxpayer money that funds those lights. The same taxpayer that will have to foot the bill for Ma-Te-Way and all the other cost overruns on capital projects like road construction that resulted from poor oversight, a generous term if there ever was one.
Yes, a municipality has among its interests the development of a thriving and stable business community. But that doesn’t mean that such a thing is the only and primary consideration, especially when it comes to money.
And so, in light of this, the lights at Ma-Te-Way are not a place where I choose to go back to the kind of thinking that got us in trouble there in the first place. If an engineering consultant’s report is what’s needed as a first step to move forward, then that’s called due diligence. If we have to spend $3900.00 for that report, then there you go, since it’s not going to be done for free. But for right now, that’s far more prudent than spending whatever needs to be spent on lights, regardless of cost, and then possibly having to face the music a few years down the road again because we “rushed it” and that “damn the torpedoes” thinking comes back to bite us in the ass. Honestly, haven’t Renfrew taxpayers already paid a huge price for the lack of due diligence in the past? Was that not a lesson painfully learned, especially a lesson so fresh in our minds?
It would be absolute folly to build a beautiful complex such as what Ma-Te-Way now is and then not provide the necessities for it to operate as intended. I agree with that totally. And yes, the circumstances behind this wonderful facility are unbelievably unfortunate, but that said, the place stands. We have to make full use of it, as and when appropriate, rather than watch a painfully-procured asset devalue and degrade as time moves on. That would be a tragic double-loss for taxpayers.
Lights for nighttime baseball are important, I agree. I once played the game under lights myself, and my experiences at Ma-Te-Way reveal to me an asset that is used robustly, and often after dark. So it’s important. But if that nighttime use has to be impacted for a single season in order for us to get the overall plan right, then as unfortunate as that is for a single segment of the community, and of non-community non-taxpaying users, it’s just an inconvenience that we’re going to have to put up with.
If our financial situation was better, this would be easier to overlook. But our financials suck, and that’s a fact. Throwing money into a situation based upon estimates provided by local contractors, without exercising responsible due diligence, is a recipe for potential disaster down the road.
If you’re responsible, you can’t follow huge mistakes by making additional mistakes of your own. And while the statement ‘it doesn’t matter what it costs, it’s gotta be done” might sound appealing to your fellow ball players, both resident and non-resident, that’s not necessarily the approach the larger demographic of Renfrew taxpayers as a whole might want to hear right now. It is, after all, their money.
Renfrew’s problems are bigger than baseball. You’ll get your lights, nobody’s trying to prevent that. Nobody wants anything any different. But we have to get those lights going the right way, using the right process. What we don’t want are significant, more expensive costs down the road because we failed to exercise due diligence today.
That would be the biggest folly.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 